Our latest round of GamesBeat 2012 speakers

VentureBeat is pleased to announce the latest speakers added to our roster for GamesBeat 2012 in San Francisco on July 10-11. We’re inviting 500 movers and shakers from throughout the games industry — social, mobile, online, and console — to talk about the “Crossover Era”. The game industry as we know it is changing. We’re seeing established companies cross over from one market to another, where once they faced barriers. As companies adapt to change, we are witnessing disruption, change, consolidation, innovation, and the arrival of big money. We’re talking billions of dollars that are at stake.

Our newest speakers are:

Jamie Berger, vice president of digital at Activision Publishing. Berger has 15 years of experience in games and is responsible for the company’s efforts in digital games across the Activision studios. He oversees efforts such as the company’s recent launch of the Call of Duty Elite hardcore gamer’s social network. He previously worked at Disney, GameSpy Industries, and IGN.

Greg Canessa, vice president of mobile at Activision Blizzard, running a business that includes the recently launched Skylanders Cloud Patrol on iOS. He is also in charge of the company’s new Activision Publishing Mobile label. He has worked at Blizzard Entertainment, PopCap Games, and Microsoft. At Microsoft, he was the general manager for the Xbox Live Arcade business.

Jeremy Liew, managing director at venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners. He invests primarily in the internet and mobile sectors, with interest in social media, commerce, gaming, and financial services. He was named to the Forbes Midas list of top VCs in 2011 and 2012. He previously worked at AOL, Netscape, InterActive Corp., and McKinsey & Co. He will join our game investments panel.

Phil Eisler, general manager of the cloud gaming & 3D Vision business at Nvidia. Eisler spearheads Nvidia’s new GeForce Grid platform, which will enable rich 3D gaming experiences on TVs, PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Eisler joined Nvidia in 2009 to work on 3D Vision stereoscopic gaming. Prior to joining Nvidia, he worked in leadership roles at Advance Micro Devices and ATI Technologies for 14 years.

Jesse Divnich, vice president of insights and analysis at EEDAR. He is responsible for doing EEDAR’s custom research, insights, and market analysis. He has nine years of experience in the game industry, primarily as a financial analyst for investment firms.  He will be on a roundtable session entitled “Ask the Analysts.”

Martin Rae, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. Rae runs the game industry academy that puts on events such as the annual DICE Summit in Las Vegas and the Interactive Achievement Awards. He previously served as CEO at Sunleaf Studios and also worked at Pandanda.com, Boss Entertainment, and The Electric Playground. He will moderate our session on game investments.

Other moderators will include Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief of GamesBeat; Sebastian Haley, GamesBeat culture editor; and Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat.

Our previously announced speakers are Mark Pincus of Zynga; Will Wright of Stupid Fun Club; Atul Bagga of Lazard Capital Markets; Bing Gordon of Kleiner Perkins; David Perry of Gaikai; Mitch Lasky of Benchmark Capital; Chris Petrovic of GameStop Digital Ventures; Riccardo Zacconi of King.com; Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio; Seamus Blackley of Innovative Leisure; Tim Chang of Mayfield Fund; Will Harbin of Kixeye; Brock Pierce of Clearstone Global Gaming Fund; David Bezahler of Blitzoo; Nicholas Talarico of 12 Gigs; Jesse Jasonov of Zynga; Christopher Griffin of Betable; Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions; Cindy Au of Kickstarter; Brian Fargo of InXile Entertainment; and Tim Merel of Digi-Capital. It’s going to be a very merry group by the time we’re done recruiting speakers.

We want to thank the industry leaders that are supporting GamesBeat 2012: W3i as Platinum Sponsor, King.com as Corporate Sponsor, Flurry & Tapjoy as Gold Sponsors, Greystripe & Nokia Developer as Silver Sponsors, and Game Insight, Kontagent, Nexage, Pontiflex & Swrve as Event Sponsors.

GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your tickets here.